Snake-Eyes: Declassified
by Trooper0007
Summary: At age of four, Naruto was rendered mute due to an attack by an angry mob. Now watch him follow in the foot steps of one of the most legendary in history, Ninjas Snake-eyes. Please note that this is a rewrite of my Hebi No Me story.


**Chapter One: The Death of Naruto Uzumaki**

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><p>It's just another bright and sunny day October day for the village of Konohagakure no Sato. Completely recovered from the Kyūbi attack that had happened four years ago, its academy classes were going strong. At a small noodle stand that was located nearly the village's red light district, a small four-year-old boy with bright blue eyes and sun-kissed blond hair with whisker marks on his cheeks sat eating his favorite type of dish. This child's name is Naruto Uzumaki and unbeknownst him, he was currently the third jinchūriki of the mighty Kyūbi no Yoko.<p>

Currently, Naruto finished his third bowl of ramen at Ichiraku when he noticed a small group of villagers gathering out of the corner of his left eye. Most of who carried a variety of makeshift weapons. The noodle chef's daughter noticed what was happening as well.

"Don't worry about paying us back right now, Naruto. Just get to the Anbu headquarters and fast." The thirteen-year-old-girl whispered to the four-year-old as she began putting away the cooking utensils as fast she could.

The blonde four-year-old nodded his head before he took running in the general direction of the Anbu headquarters. The growing mob of armed villagers quickly began giving chase to him as they shouted various insults at him.

"GET BACK HERE, DEMON! YOU NEED TO PAY FOR THE DEATHS OF THE YONDAIME HOKAGE AND OUR FAMILIES!" the villagers shouted as they tried to cut him off from the only real safe haven in the village that the young child could reach.

Naruto ran though the streets as fast as his legs could carry him as more and more people began to join the growing mob. He could hear the various calls of avenging the death of the Yondaime Hokage and slay the demon coming from behind him.

_"Why does everybody always want to hurt me on my birthday?"_ He thought to himself as he got closer to Anbu Black Ops headquarters.

The young jinchūriki couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation other than the fact that he sort of looked like a younger version of the Yondaime. The only real difference between him and the greatest hero of the village was the presence of the six whisker-like scars on his cheeks. It was a fair and logical assumption on his part as the Sandaime Hokage had occasional commented on how the two of them looked awfully a lot alike.

"I'm almost at the ANBU headquarters, I just need to get past these last few houses and I'll be home free." The child muttered to himself as he could see the top of the five story-building.

However, his hope quickly turned to despair as he noticed another group of villagers blocking his only path. He slid to a stop half-way down the street and quickly began looking for an alternate route as he could hear the mob that had been chasing after him rapidly catching up. He briefly looked around his surroundings and saw a small gap between two planks in a fence that had been built in haste. Without any hesitation, he dove in between the two wooden planks in the hopes that it would lead to an unblocked path towards the Anbu headquarters. He discovered that the wooden fence had been concealing a dead-end alleyway.

"Crap basket! It's a dead end, what do I do now?" Naruto managed to think to himself in his panicked state.

He looked around the alleyway in the hopes of finding someplace to hide. He noticed that a large green dumpster near the end of the alleyway and realized it alone could completely conceal him. He walked over to the dumpster and opened it up to find that it full with revolting things such as rotting meat and dirty diapers. The awful smell was enough that he dropped the lid in complete disgust.

"Hey, I thought that I heard something behind this fence." A male voice shouted.

Naruto, realizing that he had alerted the mob to his location, dashed behind the dumpster and huddled close to the wall in the hopes the villagers wouldn't search for him. He heard the fence being torn down with a couple of grunts from the people destroying his first line of protection. It was only a matter of time before the villagers discovered him.

The young blonde began to breathe heavily, cold sweat dripping down his forehead, as he heard the sound of footsteps coming his way. The sweating grew more pronounced as more people walked into the alleyway.

"Well…well….well….look at what got here. A filthy demon that's trying to escape it's punishment for killing our families and our beloved Yondaime Hokage." A male voice spoke from behind Naruto, which caused the blonde to jump in fright.

He turned around and found himself staring at a villager wearing ragged clothing that showed that he wasn't very well off. The four-year-old could smell the scent of alcohol coming from the man's mouth. It was obvious that the man was one of the village's homeless people that constantly wallowed in their self-pity and asked for free handouts. The child also noticed that the man had a kunai in his hand.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for Naruto as he could simply dodge a drunken villager's attacks with great ease before running away. But in this particular case, the villagers had gathered outside of the alleyway in order to cut off his only escape route. That's when he felt himself being suddenly dragged out of his hiding place by his hair and into the street that was filled with angry villagers.

"This demon filth though that it could escape its punishment for attacking our beloved village four years ago! It has used its accursed black magic to trick the Sandaime into believing that it's a human being that deserves sympathy! Well, now is the time that we rid ourselves and our village of this unholy abomination!" A man with graying violet-hair yelled out to the assembled crowd.

The villagers roared with approval as they longed since gotten tired of dealing with the Kyūbi brat's constant pranking of merchants that were gracious enough to sell the demon rotten food or regular food at five times the normal price. The homeless man from before appeared and handed the knife that had been used to intimidate Naruto with earlier. Before the violet-haired man could do anything to the child, somebody intervened.

"That's enough!" A very loud and authority voice commanded.

The entire crowd stopped what they were doing to see who had dared ordered them to stop their righteous pursuit of justice. The few dozen shinobi that were in the assembled mob instantly paled as they realized just who had given the order for them to stop.

The man stood roughly around the height of one-hundred-and seventy-one centimeters tall and had a very athletic body of his height. The steel-grey hair on the man's head had been completely had been cut down to a short stubble hairstyle. The man's eyebrows and goatee were neatly trimmed to give him an almost regal appearance. He also had a wicked scar that ran from the top of his forehead down to just below his right eye. The iris of his right eye was milky-white in color, which indicated to everybody that he was blind in that eye.

For clothing, he wore a black traditional shinobi shōzoku that left only area of the chest below the neck exposed. Underneath the ninja outfit was a mesh shirt that was only exposed in the v-neck area of the Shōzoku top. He also had on a blue sleeveless samurai jinbaori, which had the infamous Uzumaki swirl sewn onto the back of it. A black sash that was tied securely around his waist, which held a matching katana and wakizashi.

"It's the Hard Master! What the hell's he doing here?!" Some of the shinobi whispered to each other in awe and fear.

If there was one person that was universally feared and respected by both the ninja of the elemental nations and the Samurai of the Land of Iron, it was the Hard Master. So feared was the hundred-and-thirty-five-year-old man, that he was considered to be the incarnation of the God of War. Not even the combined might of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had been enough to defeat the Hard Master in his prime. In fact, it had been him that had forced the first Hokage to approve the establishment of the village's Special Assassination and Tactical Squad to handle the type of missions that couldn't be ignored.

"What's going on here?" the ancient shinobi demanded as he walked towards the gathered mob.

Nobody said anything for several seconds as they were too star-struck about the fact that they were in the presence of a living legend. The crowd parted open as the Hard Master walked through it like he was some sort of ancient prophet about to perform one of his miracles. It took a solid minute for somebody to recover from their fandom and say anything.

"We're simply punishing the demon for tainting out village with its mere presence, honorable elder." One of the villagers dumbly stated.

At hearing this, the hard master drew his Katana sword and held it in front of him. At first, the ignorant villagers foolishly believed that the legendary Hard Master was preparing to help them in removing the demonic taint from their beloved village. That belief lasted for exactly twenty-five seconds before the Hard Master beheaded several villagers with a single swing of his sword. The gathered mob stared at the headless corpses with absolute horror as they tried to process what they had just seen.

The man with the graying violet-hair was the first to recover from the initial shock of the Hard Master's action. The man's eyes became filled with rage that a living legend like the Hard Master would choose the demon brat over his own village. However, the man saw an opportunity to gather even more power for himself in the village as well as removing the last stains of the Uzumaki clan's influence over the village once and for all.

"The demon has corrupted the Hard Master with demonic influence! We must free his soul from his corrupted body and reunite him with his dead clansmen!" the man yelled to the crowd in the hopes of inciting them to attack the centenarian ninja.

Sure enough, the crowd snapped out of their horrified splendor from watching several their fellow villagers being executed on the spot. They quickly became enraged over the fact that the legendary Hard Master had sided with the demon over his fellow humans. Before the mob could do anything against the ancient shinobi, an Anbu Black Ops ninja appeared out of thin air and landed next to the samurai-looking ninja. If the crowd had any remaining doubts of attacking the Hard Master, they were further solidified by the appearance of an elite ninja with a ninjatō sword drawn.

The Anbu ninja wore the standard uniform that consisted of black clothing, a grey flak jacket, a pair of metal arm guards and black gloves, and shinobi sandals. The ninja's womanly figure indicated that they were a female. Like most of the village's Anbu agents, she wore a white porcelain mask that concealed her identity. Also like her colleagues, her mask had been customized to suit her personality. In this case, her mask was designed to look like the face of a Neko.

"You either let Naruto Uzumaki go right now or I'll kill you all!" the female Anbu ninja threatened menacing as she moved her sword in front of her.

Like with the Hard Master before her, nobody in the mob did anything as they tried to process the fact that a member of the ANBU had sided with the demon over her fellow villagers. Finally, one of the drunker villagers gathered enough courage to continue carrying out the lynching of the four-year-old.

"Damn you to hell, demon lovers!" the violet-haired man yelled out as he prepared to kill the young child, whose only "crime" was being born on the day that the Kyūbi attacked the village.

At sound of the sound of the proclamation the mob rushed the Hard Master and Neko in the hopes of stalling them long enough for their fellow villager to kill the demon spawn. Instantly, the two ninja lashed out at the mob with their sword and began cutting down villager after villager as the single assailant began torturing a trembling Naruto with the rusty kunai.

"You will die here and now, demon filth!" The villager yelled out with a maniacal glee in his voice as he slashed a rusty and dull kunai knife across Naruto's throat.

Fortunately for Naruto, a sword stabbed out of the violet-haired man's chest before he could do any more harm.

"That will be enough out of you, you worthless piece of trash! Neko-san, are you alright?" The Hard Master spoke from behind the villager as he withdrew his sword out of the now dead villager.

Neko simply ignored the founder of the Anbu Black Ops as she continued to kill off the few remaining villagers that had participated in the failed lynching of a village ward. After a couple more minutes, the few dozen remaining villagers had been reduced to one.

"I'm fine, Hard Master-sama. I'm just mopping up the last of these traitors. How's Naruto-kun doing?" Neko worriedly asked as she stabbed the last survivor through the heart with her own sword.

The ancient Uzumaki dropped the villager that he had stabbed through the chest and knelt down to check on Naruto. He first noticed that the young four-year-old had passed out during the entire event. If the samurai-turned-ninja had to venture a guess, the child had probably blacked out after having his throat slashed opened. Not that the man blamed the child for fainting after experiencing such an ordeal as it was quite natural for the human body to shut down in extreme situations.

The second thing that he noticed about Naruto was that the child's breathing grew more labored with each passing second and the infamous sound of someone choking started to appear. The man immediately reached into his jinbaori, knowing that if he didn't do something soon, the child would literally drown to death by his own blood. "It's not good, his throat has been slashed open and he's slowly suffocating in his own blood. I have to open up an airway below the gash in order for him to be able to breathe." The Hard Master spoke as he pulled out a neck poker from his jacket and stuck it in Naruto's throat just below the slash wound.

Almost immediately, Naruto stopped choking and his breathing became a lot less labored.

"We need to get him to the hospital and fast." The man said urgently as he gently picked the blonde four-year-old up off the ground.

It was common medical knowledge among experienced ninja that when it came to life-threatening injuries, the first few hours always proved to be the most critical. So if Naruto was going to survive his throat cut open, then they needed to get him to the hospital as quickly as possible.

"I'll lead the way, Hard Master-sama." Neko said as the two rushed off.

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><p><strong>((The Next Day))<strong>

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><p>Naruto awoke to the smell of antiseptic and rubbed his eyes to remove any drowsiness that might still be lingering in them. He looked around to find that he was in a room that was all white and looked to be very clean. Instantly, he realized that he was in a hospital room. He briefly scrunched his face as he tried to remember how he ended up in the hospital to begin with.<p>

That's when he remembered that he had been hiding in an alley before being dragged out and had his throat cut with a kunai knife. He then remembered that he had started choking on some sort of liquid that had magically appeared in his throat. The strangely dressed old man that had come to save him had stuck something into his neck and he could suddenly breathe a little bit easier.

It was at this moment that a nurse came into the room with a tray of medical supplies. Much to the blonde's internal relief, the nurse happened to be his own personal nurse that he often called Kikō-Nēchan in private settings.

"You're finally awake, Naruto-kun. How are you feeling?" Kikō asked with a smile on her face.

Naruto gave her a small smile. His throat did hurt a little bit, but other than that he felt fine. He opened his mouth and tried to tell her that. But, no sound came out. He tried again and like before no sound came out of his mouth.

"Naruto-kun? What's the matter?" Kikō asked worriedly.

Naruto continued to move his lips as he desperately tried to speak. But like his last two attempts at speaking, nothing came out.

"Hold on, Naruto! Neko is just outside the door, I'm going to talk to her." Kikō frantically said.

She quickly ran out the door to speak with the Anbu guard that had been assigned to watch over Naruto during his stay at the hospital. He could hear her frantically speaking with Neko. A few seconds later, Neko came running into the room alongside another person. One of the few doctors that was kind to Naruto during the blonde's numerous stays at the hospital.

"I'll go get the kunai that was used against him from the evidence lockup. With luck, it might be able to explain why Naruto-kun can't speak anymore." Neko stated as she shushined out of the room.

The doctor rushed over to Naruto's bed and used a syringe to take a blood sample from an area of Naruto's neck that a notable scar was. While the doctor was trying to figure out what was going on, Kikō was having a full-scale panic attack in the background.

"This doesn't make any sense! He should have completely healed by now, like he always does. Why isn't his healing ability working like it used to?" Kikō cried out.

A few minutes later, Neko returned with the kunai knife in her hands. She handed it over to the doctor, who briefly examined it.

"This knife is completely covered with rust, the reason why his healing factor isn't working is because the wound had already been infected to begin with." The doctor sadly commented to everybody in the room before letting out a sigh.

The room went completely silent at the revelation that somebody had been so cruel as to use a rusty weapon on a child.

"What do we do now? He needs to be vocal in order to use a jutsu and being a ninja is his dream." Kikō mournfully said as she looked at Naruto sadly.

The doctor didn't say anything as he continued to look over Naruto for anything else that could be wrong with the boy.

"True, he'll never be able to use most of the ninjutsu that are in the village's jutsu library. Also given his status as a member of the Uzumaki clan, I'm guessing that genjutsu had already been out of the question to begin with. However, he'll still able to use fūinjutsu, kenjutsu, and taijutsu." Neko politely pointed out to the nurse.

Kikō managed to calm down slightly at the mentioning of the possible jutsu that Naruto would be able to study.

"While that may be true, it still doesn't change the fact that nobody can properly heal the damage to his larynx." The doctor spoke in a soft tone that indicated that he was completely serious.

Naruto didn't really understand what was going on around him as everybody had been using big words that he didn't understand.

"I'm so sorry, my boy. Your throat..." The doctor began before trailing off.

Naruto's face went pale at the implication before he looked down. He didn't want anybody to see the tears forming in the corner of his eyes.

_"I can't talk anymore; I'll never be able to talk again. I'll be a mute for the rest of my life."_ Naruto thought to himself in a shell-shocked manner.

He had always dreamed about becoming the Hokage in order to gain the respect and admiration of the village. But even the four-year-old recognized the fact that the villagers would rather submit themselves to rule of a foreign rogue-ninja than have anything to do with him. However, this didn't mean that he couldn't help the village become stronger in some way. He looked at the three adults with determined look in his eyes. He began to charade the action of writing with his hands.

The doctor instantly realized what Naruto was "telling" them. "Right, I'll go get something." The doctor said as he left the room and soon returned with a notepad and a pencil. He quickly handed them over to Naruto, who wrote on the notepad and gave it to Neko.

"Neko, can you please help me get into the ninja library? The librarians won't let me into the building, if I'm alone." Neko read out loud.

The three adults frowned at hearing that. The ninja library that was open to anyone in the ninja academy, or given special permission by the ruling Hokage to enter. Naruto just so happened to have permission from the Sandaime to go to the library.

"You count on my help, Naruto-kun." Neko replied.

Naruto wrote another note and gave it to all three.

"The Hokage once told me a story about an age before the global disasters and the sage of six paths that there were ninja did not have any chakra inside of their bodies. They accomplished their missions by only using their trained skills in stealth and martial arts. They didn't have any flashy ninjutsu at their disposal; they just had the proper gear and the knowledge on how to use it correctly." Neko read aloud as she understood immediately what Naruto meant.

He was referring to the old legends that dated back to the first age of man. It was a time period widely believed to have been the golden age of humanity. It had teaching a level of technology that made current technology look like a pair of Styrofoam cups connected by a few feet of string in comparison. Anbu teams were often sent from the village to investigate possible rumors involving the fable technology. Many believed the Land of Snow sat on a huge secret cache of old world tech as they constantly developed technologies that were decades ahead of everybody else.

"You want to see if there's anything more on this time period in the library." Neko asked.

Naruto nodded his head in confirmation. Kikō gave Naruto a sad smile, happy to see that he hadn't given up his dream of being a ninja.

"You taking this awfully well." the nurse spoke softly to her patient.

Naruto simply wrote on the notepad again. Neko quickly decided that a new form of communication was needed for the young child as it wasn't very practical for him to keep a notepad with him at all times.

"A ninja doesn't need to be able to speak. He just needs to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible." Neko read it.

Neko nodded her head in agreement before helping Naruto out of the bed. It was something of an unwritten rule in the Anbu Black Ops that the use of ninjutsu was a tool of last resort as it quickly gave away your position.

"You focus on recovering from your ordeal from last night. As soon as you get checked out of the hospital, I will personally take you over to the library to help you search the library for any information about these ninja from the first age of man. I'm glad that you're not allowing your disability to hinder your dreams." Neko spoke as she smiled behind her mask.

Naruto nodded his head in gratitude as Kikō, Neko, and the doctor left the room to allow him some time to recuperate.

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><p><strong>((With the Konoha Council))<strong>

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><p>Danzō Shimura sat quietly in the small section of the room that was dedicated solely to the village elders. He had a bad feeling about this entire emergency council session as his agents had reported seeing an elderly man that looked an awful lot like the Hard Master. He may be a power-hungry warhawk that wanted Konohagakure and the Land of Fire to reign supreme over the elemental nations, but even he didn't dare to cross the man that had single-handily ended the first shinobi world war. It was tantamount to covering yourself in fresh meat and walking into an Inuzuka clan's dog pen filled to the brim with starving canines. It wasn't going to be a very pleasant experience for anyone, to say the least.<p>

It was at this moment that the Hokage entered the council chamber with an extremely annoyed look on his wrinkled face. Instantly, Danzō realized that his old rival hadn't been the one to call for the emergency council session. So the question that was on the Warhawk's mind was who had the audacity to summon the council.

"I'm so glad that you were finally able to show your cowardly face, Hiruzen. I was seriously beginning to wonder if you had fled from your responsibilities as the Hokage." A cold and collected voice spoke from the leather chair that the Hokage sat in during council meeting.

The chair slowly turned around to reveal the form of the Hard Master, the man that defeated both the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha without any help. At the sight of the ancient Uzumaki, everybody that knew about his reputation went pale-white in absolute fear. Even Hiruzen didn't dare make a comment about him sitting in the seat that was reserved solely for the Hokage. The only reason why the man wasn't the Hokage was due to him not wanting the position to begin with.

"Hard Master-sama, may I ask about why you have called for this meeting? Your reports had lead me to believe that your diplomatic missions to the various daimyō courts were largely successful with only the daimyō of Kaminari no Kuni refusing to see you." The third Hokage politely spoke to the man that many believed to be immortal.

The Hard Master leveled the dreaded Uzumaki glare at the younger man for trying to play coy with him. At the sight of the glare that made even Madara Uchiha cringe in absolute fear, the Sandaime instantly went quiet. Danzō could only shake his head in sympathy for his old rival as he had been on the receiving end of that glare on numerous occasions during his childhood. The only difference between the glares was the level of fury that fueled them.

"I'm talking about the fact that I found a ward of the Uzumaki clan being lynched by a mob of villagers! You had personally assured me before I left that the child would be viewed as the hero that Minato-san had wanted to him to be!" The Hard Master commented in an ice cold manner that sent shivers up everybody's spines.

It didn't take a genius on par with a member of the Nara clan to figure out about whom the Hard Master spoke. The fact that some of their clansmen had attacked the blonde in the past meant that they had effectively declared a clan feud with the Uzumaki clan. The clan from the Land of Whirlpools may be extremely small and scattered across the globe at the moment, but they were still a powerful force to be reckoned with. So to avoid their clan's destruction, they would have to pay some sort of reparation to the dying clan.

"SO TELL ME HIRUZEN, WHY THE BLOODY HELL WAS KUSHINA'S CHILD BEING ATTACKED LIKE HE WAS A COMMON CRIMINAL!" The Hard Master yelled out as his chakra suddenly became visible to the naked eye.

To everybody's horror, the centenarian's chakra instantly took on the form of a giant eastern-style dragon that had the antlers of a stag on its head. They had heard the rumors of powerful shinobi having the ability to manipulate their chakra into the shapes of their spirit animal.

"Hard Master-sama, I tried my best to keep the boy safe as best as I could…" The Hokage started to explain why he hadn't been able to protect the boy like he had promised.

Only to be cut off by the Hard Master, who wasn't in the mood to listen to any bullshit excuses from the supposed leader of the village.

"Save it, Sarutobi. It's clear that placing my trust in your ability to keep your word was a great mistake on my part. Just like it was Tobirama's mistake in appointing you to the position of Hokage, when it's clear that you are not the capable leader that he believed you to be." The Uzumaki commented as he got up out of the leather chair that he had been sitting in.

Hiruzen winced at being called a mistake by one of the men that founded the village. The Hard Master had never really approved of him being appointed to the position of Hokage over several other candidates that he felt were more suited for the position. Then again, the ninja master of the Uzumaki clan had always been a firm believer in the school of thought that believed that ninja should operate solely in the shadows and be feared for being silent assassins of the night.

"Therefore, I'm officially adopting Naruto as my sole heir to the Uzumaki clan and he will inherit everything that legally belongs to me and my clan when I die." The Hard Master spoke in a manner that left no room for argument from anybody else in the room.

Not that anybody dared to say anything about him adopting Naruto as the blonde was an Uzumaki by blood.

The only person that looked like they wanted to object to this action was Fugaku Uchiha as he desired the ancient items and scrolls that the Uzumaki clan had locked up in their compound. The fact that the Uzumaki clan was rumored to have been established long before the existence of the Sage of Six paths only increased the Uchiha's dark desires.

_"Only the Uchiha clan should have artifacts that predate the Sage of Six paths as we are his rightful successors and heirs! I will take what rightfully belongs to us, no matter what the cost!"_ Fugaku angrily thought to himself as he watched the Hard Master leave the room to go check up on his newly adopted son and heir.

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><p><strong>((Okay, here<strong>**'s the first chapter of the newly rewritten story called Hebi No Me. Now I wanted to introduce the Hard Master a lot earlier in the story as I have plans on turning a certain Uchiha into a international criminal a lot sooner than in the official canon. I will still keep Yūgao as Naruto de facto mother in the story, but he has been firmly adopted as the Hard Master's son. Don't worry, he will still reestablish the Arashikage clan as it wouldn't be proper to call him Snake-Eyes if he weren't an Arashikage.))**


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